Welcome

Hello, my name is Dionne and I have been crafting for a very long time. As a very young child my mother tried to teach me to knit, it was a disaster. However, it must have sparked an interest in making things and, partly to prove that I was not totally useless and partly because I really wanted to make things, I taught myself to crochet. Over the years I have developed a love of cross stitch and all types of paper craft ..... I eventually even taught myself to knit.

I am married to a very understanding man, thank goodness, because I spend all my time either crafting, thinking about crafting or talking about crafting. I am hopeless at housework and dinner is often late!

Friday, 31 March 2017

I am back today with another wonderfully old fashioned cardigan design to show you. It was part of the bundle I made for my youngest niece when she was newly born.

Just like the cardigan I shared with you last week, this is another pattern from UK Hand Knitting Association (UKHKA 4) and is made in 4 ply. Just in case you are wondering, those are double fish eyed buttons.

Monday, 27 March 2017

Do you remember my recent 'Cat Girl' post? The little knitted cat I made for the birthday of one of my nieces? Well I made cat girl a friend to play with, Monkey Girl. This Girl Monkey pattern is available from Ravelry.

I am loving these 'Little Cotton Rabbits' creatures, and there are so many of them bears, rabbits, elephants, foxes and mice as well as cats and monkeys. I made my little monkey in Stylecraft Alpaca Tweed and the clothes were made in King Cole cotton yarn.

We had a little fashion show - just so you to see her modelling her new wardrobe. Here we have her dusky red dress with cream hearts.

And the red and white chunky jumper with blue peddle pushers.

And so you can see her lovely prehensile tail, a rear view.

Cat and monkey together, getting ready for the birthday party the other weekend.

and here they are after their hopping spree, they bought so much and had so much fun.......

The paper for the shopping bags came from my very extensive paper stash.

I thought that you might like to know that my niece has called the little cat Charlotte and the monkey Leighanne. I hope my little niece has as much fun playing dress up with her two new friends as I had making them.

Friday, 24 March 2017

The weekend is almost here, I really do not know where the weeks go. In just over a week it will be April and a quarter of 2017 will be behind us, gone forever.

Hands up who had a cardigan like this when they were little? I certainly did, this is a very similar pattern to the ones my mother and granny made for me. I made this one for my youngest niece.

The pattern is from UK Hand Knitting Association (UKHKA 6) and is made in 4 ply.

Other than that, I can think of nothing to say about this project. Writing about knitted cardigans is certainly a lot quicker than writing about cards and tags. Nonetheless, I am very grateful that you have taken the time to visit my blog today.

Monday, 20 March 2017

I have a number of knitting projects to share with you at the moment but I want to pace my posts because knitting projects take a lot longer than cards, but it is hard to decide which to show you first. However, I am so excited about this one and I could not wait to show you any longer.

This is Romeo Bear, he is another pattern from Susan Hickson and Mary Jane's Tearoom. You can buy the pattern on-line from Ravelry. I think he has to be my favourite knitted project so far, isn't he is a cutie?

I made Romeo Bear and his clothes from 100% alpaca wool - he is so warm and soft and utterly cuddly. He stands 14.5 inches tall.

He has less clothing than the other Mary Jane's Tearoom projects I have made but it is such a smart outfit.

His jumper features a hearts and kisses design, although I originally thought it was strawberries and crossed knives and forks. LOL!

I think these dungarees are super sweet. The pattern gives a reference for the little wooden heart buttons, unfortunately I was unable to track them down, but I managed to find these wooden buttons on ebay - between the two of us they are all decorated on the other side but you cannot see the reverse once they are stitched in place.

As you can see, his walking boots match his dungarees.

His socks are part of his legs and do not come off. Oh, and no, that is not an optical illusion, he really does have pretty big feet.

This was my first attempt at stitching a bears nose, I was feeling pretty pleased with myself when it was finished.

It is a little difficult to see but he has a little heart stitched in his ear.

Thank you for dropping by today, I hope you like Romeo Bear. I have just started making his friend Candy, fingers crossed I will be able to share her with you in the not too distant future.

Friday, 17 March 2017

Last summer I knitted quite a few cardigans for my little nieces but I never got the chance to post them. I thought today might be a good day to share these two with you. I made them for sisters to wear on a special occasions we all went to last summer. I wanted them to match but, as the two girls are similar in size, I made them with little differences so they could be told apart at a glance.

The most obvious difference in one is 'V' necked and the other round. I also made the bottom rib slightly wider in one and, of course, the buttons are differnt.

Monday, 13 March 2017

It is one of my young nieces 6th birthday today and, as a little extra present, I have made her a little knitted cat along with some additional clothes for dressing up.

I discovered this series of knitting animals by Julie Williams on Pinterest a couple of years ago. They stole my heart and I started to collect the patterns from Ravelry, this one is simply called Girl Cat. The series of patterns are sold under the name of 'Little Cotton Rabbits' - there are several very sweet rabbit designs which I am sure I shall be knitting in the not too distant future.

My finished cat stands just 8 inches high. I knitted the body in Stylecraft Alpaca Tweed and the clothes in King Cole cotton yarn. Each pattern comes with very clear instructions and several variations.

The pattern also comes with one dress pattern but you can purchase a pattern of fouteen 'seasonal' dress designs. As you can see I have made her two additional dresses.

You can also purchase a pattern of eight additional jumper designs. I chose the sweet butterfly design. The shorts pattern came from one of the Boy Rabbit patterns.

I just love how the back of the shorts leaves a space for the cat's tail.

We had a little fashion show for my blog. You have already seen the blue plaid dress, here we have the butterfly jumper and pretty pink pedal pushers ..........

Next the cat is modelling her additional dresses. This attractive blue and lavender polka dot .....

and this lovely yellow cup cake party dress.

These smaller designs are a little more fiddly than the Mary Jane's Tearoom pattern I have been sharing with you recently but they were great fun and I am sure you will be seeing more from the series in the near future.

Monday, 6 March 2017

Somewhat later than promised, I am back today with the second half of my 'Lapland Visitrs' post. I must apologise for this delay, my only excuse is that I have been somewhat distracted since the start of the year and I have been switching between knitting projects and I currently have at least six on the go. But I have at last finished photographing Bo's sister Anaka and completed this post.

If you saw the first part of this post you will already know that a few years ago I discovered a series of knitting patterns on Ravelry published under the name of 'Mary Jane's Tearoom', they were designed by Susan Hickson. The first pattern I made was Bo and here is his adorable sister Anaka - I should warn you that there are a lot of photographs in this post.

I thought that you might like to see something of the process, here are her stripey (stockings) legs and her body. At this point the legs were able to stand unsupported and it made me giggle to see this egg on legs 'walking' around my work table.

Anaka's body and boots are made of 100% alpaca wool and stuffed with hollow fibre toy filling.

Her features are darned on so there are no bits to be pulled off by little fingers. I learnt a lot from making Bo and I continued to learn with every stuffed toy I have made. Anaka's arms and head came off several times before I was happy with them.

The alpaca wool I used is beautifully soft but it is much finer than any other Double Knit yarns I have ever use. Therefore, just like Bo, Anaka is smaller than stated in the pattern and all of her clothes were much too large, to get her clothes to fit I decided to knit them on 2mm needles instead of 2.75mm.

Anaka has a reoccurring motif of hearts on her clothes and boots. The clothes are made from 4 ply cotton, I used Rowen Summerlite.

The stitches in the clothes are so very fine and I found it quite impossible to pick up stitches around the arm holes to make the sleeves in the jumper, so I made them separately. Isn't this jumper sweet? I was actually knitting it on Valentine's Day.

I added a row of the dark blue yarn from Bo's outfit to tie the two outfits together Bo had a little of Anaka' pink in his leg warmers). I love the way the pattern created this pleated effect on the skirt.

These tiny knickers are so sweet but the lace edge was soooo fiddly to make.

Little padded hearts decorate the boots and there is a matching pin for her 'hair'.

Anaka has a little beret hat, but just like her brother, I think I prefer her without the hat. I stitched the little heart to a broach pin so it can be easily removed when she wears her hat.

Just a little wave from my cheeky girl in her undies.

Now she is fully dressed her legs are unable to support her without aid, but I really wanted you to see her from behind and her cute little tail.

Here they are together, I am sure you agree that they make such an adorable couple.

I hope you have enjoyed seeing Bo and Anaka as much as I enjoyed making them.

My next project is already well underway and I hope to be back to share it with you very soon.